I know I can right-click the headers and change this but I have to do this every time and it gets tedious. How can I tell Windows vista explorer "always for every kind of file in any directory, just show me Date-last-modified and Size and also automatically show the full file name so I don't always have to expand it to see the full names of my files"

While this works for the folder in question, it certainly does not prevent my Vista from defaulting to "Pictures and Videos" in virtually any folder that I create. Gets a bit annoying to do this in the long run...
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Fredrik MörkJul 21 '09 at 7:15

A problem I often encountered is that even after resetting a folder to "All Items", it tends to revert back to a different template occasionaly. It annoyed the hell out of me.
A solution can be found here - regedit, so be careful to back it up.